The Supreme Court has finally cleared South Korean steel major Posco's plans to set up a Rs 51,000 crore mega steel plant and captive minor port in Paradeep, Orissa.

A special environmental bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan allowed Posco India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Korea-based Posco, to go ahead with the project.

With this order, the apex court has also cleared forest diversion proposal for the plant site which require 1253.225 hectares of forest land.

Posco, the world's third largest steel producer, on June 22, 2005 entered into an MoU with the Orissa Government, in which the state government-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) had agreed to supply uninterrupted iron ore and other minerals for its 12 mtpa project.

According to the company, when commissioned, it is projected to be the third largest steel plant in the world, producing annually 12 million tonnes of steel.